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  • 2021-11-20 (xsd:date)
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  • Is the 'Penis Snake' a Real Animal? (en)
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  • Pictures of phallic-shaped objects are a surefire way to get the internet to snicker, which is probably why we've been asked about penis-shaped islands, plants, rocks, and Christmas lights. In November 2021, photographs of another another dick doppelganger made their way around social media, this time supposedly showing a penis snake. These are genuine photographs of a real animal. While these pictures often make their way around the internet attached to names like penis snake, floppy snake, or man-aconda, this creature's proper name is Atretochoana eiselti. And while this animal's internet nicknames would lead some to believe that these photos show a sort of phallic-looking snake, this animal is actually a species of caecilian, a group of limbless amphibians. We haven't been able to source both of the above-displayed pictures, but the top photograph was taken in 2011, when a large caecilian had been collected at the bottom of the Madeira River in Brazil after a portion of the river was drained for a construction project. Here's an excerpt from the paper published in the Brazilian scientific journal, Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi: Ciências Naturais, where this photo was published: The penis snake in this photo is an adult female A. eiselti that measured just under 40 inches. This specimen was preserved and later dissected by the researchers as they attempted to learn more about this rare species. Brazilian biologist Juliano Tupan, one of the researches who wrote this paper, said: Additional photos of this A. eiselti can be seen here. Below are alternative angles showing the head of this large caecilian: A paper published in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society in 1997 provided another photograph of this odd-looking animal's head. While the viral photos of this animal often get shared because of their phallic familiarities, this animal's appearance may not be the most interesting thing about A. eiselti. This is also the only caecilian that doesn't have lungs. The Scientific American notes that A. eiselti was first described in 1968. While a handful of other specimens have been collected since then, scientists didn't know much about these strange creatures for decades, including how they breathed. In 2011, Tutan and his fellow researchers found that these creatures likely obtain oxygen through the capillaries near the surface of their skin. The Scientific American explained: (en)
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